In surgical suite settings, clean rooms, laboratories and other contaminant sensitive environments, showers and sinks are employed to remove and wash away unwanted, and potentially dangerous, biologic and inorganic materials. To accomplish this, filters may be attached to shower heads and faucets to ensure a clean water supply is used to remove the unwanted materials. These systems often involve gravity fed, or pressurized systems to deliver the water. The water force is used to displace any contaminants from specified surfaces whether from instruments or from body parts. In doing so, however, the pressurized or gravity-fed water flow used to forcefully detach unwanted contaminants leads to splashing that can undesirably transfer the contaminant materials to other surfaces and body parts.
Another problem concerns spatial limitations in shower stalls and sinks. Any filter attachment has to fit within a certain amount of space. Conventional filter capsules, such as those shown generally as 1 in FIGS. 1-4, have a capsule body 2 with an inlet 3 extending from one end and an outlet 4 extending from an opposite end that may or may not include perforations 6. A filter or filter cartridge 5 is secured in the filter capsule as shown in FIG. 2. The length of the body will be determined by the filter requirements. The filter needed to ensure the delivery of clean, sterile water will drive the capsule dimensions. The port dimensions will be driven by the connecting features of faucets and shower heads. These requirements inevitably lead to filter capsule sizes that may push the spatial limitations of the larger fixtures to which they are attached and limit the ability to control splashing both in terms of force and splash patterns.
One example of a relevant art filter capsule modified to alter an outlet port configuration is shown in FIG. 5 and derived from U.K. Patent Application No. GB 2 257 052. The '052 application discloses a water filter assembly for a faucet. A top subassembly is used to secure the filter assembly to a faucet. A replaceable filter cartridge is secured to the top subassembly. Unlike common filter cartridges that include an outlet port that extends outwardly from a body of the filter cartridge, the '052 cartridge has an outlet formed on a bottom end with a convex shaped filter/screen labeled a “flow straightening filter” inserted and secured to the outlet opening. The purpose of the filter/screen is described as being to “prevent the scattering of water.” A bottom plate secures the screen to the outlet opening.
Notably, the screen is inset from a bottom end of the filter cartridge so that the walls of the outlet appear to create a cylindrical channel for fluids that migrate past the “filter.” The walls of the outlet thus form the final restriction to water flow dispersal. This will diminish the “flow straightening” effect of the convex screen.
Another similar filter capsule construction is shown in FIG. 3 and derived from German Patent Application No. DE 20 2007 000 152 U1 that discloses a filter capsule with an outlet opening formed on a bottom of the capsule covered with a perforated disc secured to the capsule outlet. The overall shape of the disc follows the general round contours of the capsule housing and appears to be designed not to protrude from the housing. The disc appears to be structured to function like a typical aeration faucet insert. The '152 disclosure lacks any significant detail about the perforations other than the evenly spaced pattern of perforations.
Although these relevant art references appear to provide a means to reduce the overall dimensions of a filter capsule, they do not adequately solve the problem of controlling splash patterns to minimize the unwanted spread of contaminants. What is needed and what is disclosed herein are combinations of filter capsules with modified outlet port covers that provide enhanced splash control and overall reduced capsule spatial requirements. These and other objects of the disclosure will become apparent from a reading of the following summary and detailed description of the disclosure as well as a review of the appended drawings.